The lights go down. The film starts. The company logos play, and immediately we are thrust into a conversation.  A man in a jacket emblazoned with a scorpion is standing in a dark room on a cellphone.  He’s explaining his terms to the person on the otherside. They’re very simple. “If I drive for you, you give me a time and a place. I give you a five-minute window, anything happens in that five minutes and I’m yours no matter what. I don’t sit in while you’re running it down; I don’t carry a gun… I drive.”

This is our “hero”. Never given a name and known simply as ‘Driver’ in the credits, he is a man of few words, but for him, they aren’t necessary.  It’s his actions which say everything.  And it’s his actions that set everything into motion for Drive, a dark, moody film that gives props to 80’s action films that came before it but is truly a creation of it’s own.

Starting with almost a short film showing the Driver and how good at his job he is, the movie kicks in for it’s credits, a pumping musical montage set to “Nightcall” by Kavinsky. In certain movies, this montage would be shlock, an 80’s throwback that mocks an era.  Here it sets the tone.  The director is intending to tell us a tale, but not necessarily in the way you’d expect. Nicolas Winding Refn (director of Bronson and Valhalla Rising) plays his story out like a song.  The scenes giving us just enough of moments, like vague lyrics that paint the picture but don’t provide all the details, the action sequences are the crescendo that give the film it’s apex and emotional catharsis.  And like a good rockband, we have one hell of a front man - Ryan Gossling.

I’m not sure when Gossling got so damned good as an actor, but it seems he didn’t ever want to be The Notebook Guy.  Here, he is equally ever in the moment and always illusive, mixing quietly simmering dialogue with violent and extreme actions.  But at the same time there is an incredible tenderness to his character, as seen in the way he cares for his neighbor, Irene (Casey Mulligan) and her son.  The dichotomy continues with his day to day life, with his dayjobs of being a mechanic and doing stuntdriving for films, juxtaposed against his nightlife of being the wheelman for crimes and getting caught up in the mob (represented in two great, scene stealing performances from Albert Brooks and Ron Pearlman).

Much like a great album, each moment is sequenced perfectly right - but to spoil how the moments come together would ruin the fun.  Drive is a film full of scenes and sequences that have continued to bounce around my memory since I saw the film yesterday, and I forsee it sticking with me for a very long time.  Much like the synth soundtrack that permeates every speaker in the theater, the film pulses, bounces and eventually blows you away.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I sat down for Drive, but what I got was one of my favorite movies this year.  Stunning cinematography, great music, impeccable performances and a story that ties up the ends you need and leaves just enough loose to have you discussing the events for hours to come, this is a film that will be looked back at fondly for years to come.  I can’t wait to hit play and start it all over again.